US 11,889,371 B2
Seamless relocation of a mobile terminal in a wireless network
David Aaron Claassen, Leesburg, VA (US); and Lei Wang, Oak Hill, VA (US)
Assigned to SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC, Morrisville, NC (US)
Filed by SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC, Morrisville, NC (US)
Filed on Mar. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/683,758.
Application 17/683,758 is a continuation of application No. 16/721,042, filed on Dec. 19, 2019, granted, now 11,297,552.
Application 16/721,042 is a continuation of application No. 15/883,303, filed on Jan. 30, 2018, granted, now 10,548,059, issued on Jan. 28, 2020.
Application 15/883,303 is a continuation of application No. 15/018,278, filed on Feb. 8, 2016, granted, now 9,924,431, issued on Mar. 20, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0272596 A1, Aug. 25, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04W 36/14 (2009.01); H04W 36/00 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 36/14 (2013.01) [H04W 36/0016 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A Software Defined Network (SDN) controller comprising processing circuitry configured to:
receive a handover request at a mobility management entity (MME) from an inflight communication terminal based on relocation of the terminal from a first base station served by a first serving gateway (SGW) among a plurality of SGWs and a first packet data network gateway (PGW) among a plurality of PGWs to a second base station served by a second SGW;
determine, at the MME, whether to conduct a handover from the first base station to the second base station along with execution of a PGW relocation from the first PGW to a second PGW;
direct the handover from the first base station to the second base station; and
responsive to determining to conduct the handover with execution of the PGW relocation, converging routing for the terminal via the second PGW while maintaining an IP address assigned to the terminal.